Households are increasingly less likely to subscribe to pay TV for television's stake. Instead, as the concurrent rise in broadband subscriptions provided by "telephone" companies shows, cable TV is becoming a vestigial product in triple-play packages where web service is consumers' main concern.

It's a potential bonanza for companies like Verizon, and AT&T. Less so for Dish TV and DirecTV, whose business is growing in rural areas where Verizon and AT&T are unlikely to install FIOS and U-Verse.